Campos



F. CAMPOS March 29, 1955 CALCULATING MACHINE KEY-BOARD AND DIFFERENTIALACTUATORS 4 Shets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Feb. 19, 1951 s s QMM W Z R m wW0 n I C F. cAMPos CALCULATING MACHINE KEY-BOARD AND DIFFERENTIALACTUATORS Filed Feb. 19, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original INVENTOR. /T4/vc/5ca (kw as: Br

QTTORNEY I March 29, 1955 F. CAMPOS 2,705,109

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ATTORNEYS.

March 29, 1955 F. CAMPOS 2,705,109 CALCULATING MACHINE KEY-BOARD ANDDIFFERENTIAL ACTUATORS Original Filed Feb. 19, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 4United States Patent CALCULATING MACHINE KEY-BOARD AND DIFFERENTIALACTUATORS Francisco Campos, Paris, France, assignor to Societe Anonymedite: Societe des Brevets Logabax, Paris, France, a corporation ofFrance Original application February 19, 1951, Serial No. 211,594.Divided and this application February 19, 1951, Serial No. 211,595

Claims priority, application France February 12, 1951 1 Claim. (Cl.235-145) The increasing complexity of economic problems inadministrative work requires the use of highly improved calculatingmachines in order to accomplish statistics, accounting operations andthe like.

The present invention concerns an improvement 1n mechanical elements incalculating machines presenting a great number of counters which aredesigned for accounting and statistical analysis according to themachine described in U. S. Patent No. 2,562,172 dated July 31, 1951.This machine is essentially characterized in that it comprises a certainnumber of counting units respectively representing an account, each ofwhich is formed of a frame composed of parallel rods or slides which areshiftable in a longitudinal direction and are provided, lengthwise, withcatches or teeth. The number of said teeth is equal to the number ofunits, less one, of the adopted basis of numeration, said slides formingthe calculating elements. Each frame bearing such rods or slides in anumber equal to the number of numeration orders foreseen for thecalculations to be accomplished. Mechanical means cooperating with thecatches or teeth of said rods or slides, in order that one or more rodsor slides in one or more counting units may be automatically movedlengthwise in one direction or the other, under the action of anelectrical or any other motor and under the control of a key-boardcomprising groups of keys corresponding to the various counting unitsand groups of calculating keys, said movements being proportional to thenumbers represented by the calculating keys which are acted upon by theoperator. Mechanical means are further provided in connection with saidrods or slides in order that the recording or printing of the data ofthe operations and their results be insured.

In my co-pending patent application Ser. No. 211,594, filed February 19,1951, I have described various improvements in such machine, especiallyreferring to the tens transfer mechanism. The present application, whichis a division of my said co-pending application, relates moreparticularly to a key-board arrangement for the control of thecalculation slides in machine of the considered type.

In a machine of the said type, the keys cannot be depressed for asucceeding calculation while the machine is performing the cycle for thepreceding operation.

The present invention, on the contrary, provides a device whereby thekeys of the keyboard may be depressed even before the cycle of thepreceding operation is terminated, thus considerably increasing theregistering speed of the machine.

The device according to the invention substantially consists in avertical bar parallel to the key stem of each key in the keyboard andconnected to said stem, against which it may slide, by means of aspring, said vertical bar being itself connected to the frame of themachine by means of a spring, and the lower end of said vertical barterminating with a blunted angle in the shape of a sloped plane, inorder that after a key stem is depressed to cooperate with a tooth on asliding stop bar of the machine and thereby limit the sliding of saidstop bar, it is possible to depress another key stem driving asucceeding movement.

Said stop bar will not be prevented from returning back, since thecorresponding teeth of said stop bar will cooperate with the slopedplane at the lower part of sald 2,705,109 Patented Mar. 29, 1955 Fig. 3is a corresponding lateral view of a key. Fig. 4 is a rear elevationalview of one row of keys in the keyboard.

Fig. 5 is a plan view, from above, of the complete machine shown atFigure l.

The machine shown at Fig. 1 is described in detail in rznly1 5agbiavementioned co-pending application Ser. No.

The keyboard on the right hand side of said machine (Fig. 5) comprisesfour rows of nine key caps 114 (Figs. 1 and 5) indicated by referencenumerals 1141, 1142, 1143, 1144, 1145, 1146, 1141, 114a, 1149, aremounted on the upper part of rods 154 sliding inside of frames 153, oneframe being provided for each numeration order (Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4).Vertical sliding bars 155 are mounted parallel to stems 154 and are eachprovided with a stud 156, said stud passing through a slot in theadjacent stem 154 and serving as a hooking point for a spring 157hooked, at its other end, upon another stud 158 fast with said adjacentstem 154. Alongside each key stem, a spring 159 is hooked, at one of itsends, on to frame 153 and, at its other end, on to a stud 160, which isalso fast with rod 154.

Immediately beneath each row of key caps 114 a stop bar 113 is slidablymounted in guides 190. A finger 134 protrudes laterally of the rear endof each bar 113, which finger engages a groove provided in a verticalextension .133 of a driving bar 103 which lies immediately beneath theconsidered bar 113. The upper side of each bar 113 is provided with aseries of teeth adapted to cooperate with the vertical bars 155 of thekey caps 114 of the corresponding row of keys when said keys aredepressed and bar 133 moves towards the back of the machine.

When the operator depresses a key caps 114, which is then held downwardsas will be explained hereafter, stem 154 fast with said key follows thedownward movement and spring 157 will also drive the correspondingvertical bar 155 downwards. When the corresponding driving bar 103 movestowards the back of the machine under the action of spring 135 attachedthereto, as explained in my co-pending application Ser. No. 211,594, thecorresponding stop bar 113, which is made fast with said bar 103 bymeans of the extension 133 thereof and the finger 134, also moves in thesame direction but is stopped in said movement by abutment of a tooth ofsaid bar 113 with said vertical bar of the depressed key cap 114. Whilethe machine operates its cycle, and during the rotation of shaft 39 andbefore stop bars 113 have returned to their extreme position towards thefront of the machine, the operator may depress another key. Nothing willprevent said stop bars 113 from returning, since the teeth ofcorresponding stop bar 113, which must pass under the previouslydepressed vertical bar 155, will act upon the bevelled, lower end 161 ofsaid vertical bar 155 which will then be freely pushed upwards againstthe action of spring 157.

As soon as the tooth has gone by and stop bars 113 have been driven byrollers 137 to their extreme position the vertical bar 155 will comedown again and will therefore again be ready to play their normal partof a stop for the next operation.

On the vertical sides of the keyboard frames 153 are rotatively mountedflaps 336 to maintain stems 154 in a downward position by cooperatingwith inclined notches 337, which are provided in said stems. A cross-bar338 slidably mounted across frames 153 is provided with large notches(Fig. 2) which cooperate withthe flaps 336 for causing said flaps totilt after each recording in order to release all rods 154 which havebeen depressed by the operator. Transverse movement of bar 338 is causedby cams and rods notrepresented in the drawings. Other flaps 339 aremounted in the same way as flaps 336 and each carries a stud 340 adaptedto cooperate with a zero finger 178 capable of rocking on a trunnionfixed onto the corresponding frame 153. When a stem 154 is depressed,flap 339 which corresponds to said stem tilts over, thereby driving andtilting the corresponding zero finger 178. It should be remarked that ifthe said zero fingers 178 are not tilted, said fingers lock all stopbars 113 by engaging zero teeth 179 (Fig. 1) carried by said stop bars.

A bar 341 (Figs. 2 and 3) is fixed to the vertical sides of frame 153and has for its object to limit upward and downward movement of stems154.

What I claim is:

In a calculating machine comprising calculating members controlled by aplurality of longitudinally movable, parallel bars slidably mounted infixed guides and having an upper side provided with protruding teeth, akey-board comprising frames extending over and along each of saidmovable control bars, a row of key stems slidably arranged in each ofsaid frames, substantially perpendicularly to the movable barcorresponding thereto, and having an upper end protruding above thecorresponding frame, a key top on each of said key stems, a springmember adapted to pull each of said key stems upwards in saidcorresponding frame, a lateral notch in each key stem, a rotatablelocking flap mounted in each frame, extending perpendicularly to all thekey stems in said frame, and adapted to engage the notches in said keystems for locking said stems in depressed position, means for pivotingsimultaneously the locking flaps in all the frames, whereby the saidflaps which have engaged notches in key stems are disengaged from saidnotches, vertical bars slidably mounted in said frames, one vertical barbeing mounted along each key stem, a lateral finger on each of saidvertical bars, extending through a slot in the adjacent key stem andconnected to said adjacent key stem by a resilient member, each of saidvertical bars having a bevelled lower edge protruding beneath thecorresponding frame and adapted to cooperate with the teeth in thecorresponding movable control bar in order to stop said bar when saidbar moves in one direction and to be raised by the teeth in said barwhen said bar moves in the other direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,281,792 Knistrom Oct. 15, 1918 1,484,237 Rauchwetter Feb. 19, 19242,562,172 Campos July 31, 1951

